POPULATION OF NEW SPAIN. 353 
generally distributed than it was before the con- 
quest, and the number of Indians has increased 
during the last century. According to an imper- 
feet census made in 1794, the return was estimated 
at 5,200,000. The proportion of births to deaths, 
during the time between that period and Humboldt’s 
visit, was found, from data furnished by the clergy, 
to be 170: 100; while that of births to the total 
amount he considers as 1 in 17, and of the deaths 
as ] in 30. The annual number at present born he 
estimates at nearly 350,000, and that of deaths at 
200,000. It would thus appear that, if this rate of 
increase were not checked from time to time by some 
extraordinary cause, the population of New Spain 
would double every nineteen years. In the United 
States generally it has doubled, since 1784, every 
twenty or twenty-three years ; and in some of them 
it doubles in thirteen or fourteen. In France, on the 
other hand, the number of inhabitants would double 
in 214 years were no wars or contagious diseases to 
interfere. Such is the difference between countries 
that have long been densely peopled and those whose 
civilisation is of recent date. Humboldt, from vari- 
ous considerations, assumes the population of Mexico 
in 1803 at 5,800,000 ; and thinks it extremely pro- 
bable that in 1808 it exceeded 6,500,000. 
The causes which retard the increase of numbers 
in Mexico are the small-pox ; a disease called by 
the Indians matlazahuatl; and famine. The first 
of these, which was introduced in 1520, seems to 
exert its power at periods of 17 or 18 years. In 
1763, and in 1779, it committed dreadful ravages, 
having carried off during the latter, in the capital 
alone, more than 9000 persons. In 1797 it was less 
